Daily routine -- and despair

BY ALFONSO CHARDY

The day starts at 5:30 a.m. when guards wake up detainees and ends at 11 p.m. when they dim the lights in the dormitories at the Krome detention center.

In between meals, detainees spend the day watching television, reading, sleeping, working at the site for $1 a day, or calling friends and relatives on the outside.

Day in and day out, the routine rarely varies -- except on weekends when lights dim an hour later and friends and relatives visit.

A recent tour of the facility and telephone interviews with some detainees, including one of the longest-held -- former Venezuelan national guard Lt. José Antonio Colina -- added detail to Krome's daily life.

Renewed interest in the facility stems from a Jan. 21 announcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that Krome had earned accreditation from the American Correctional Association, a Lanham, Md.-based association that bills itself as the oldest and largest international correctional group in the world.

The accreditation prompted Michael Rozos, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office director who leads Florida detention and removal operations, to hail the move as a new start for a facility plagued by prior allegations of sexual abuse and disdainful treatment of detainees.

TOUR OF KROME

After Rozos' announcement, the Krome officer in charge -- Marion Dillis -- gave reporters a rare tour of the facility in West Miami-Dade County.

Krome resembles a sprawling military barracks with dormitories, a cafeteria, a clinic and a large open field where hundreds of detainees play soccer, basketball and volleyball, and jog or exercise. Workers are building a new administrative and immigration court complex nearby, which Dillis said should be ready by summer's end.

On the day of the tour, Krome was at capacity with 580 detainees. Officials said the average stay was 30 days -- although some detainees claim that the average stay is more like 160 days.

DESCRIPTIONS VARY

Reporters could not talk with detainees.

But Colina and other detainees -- by phone and by letter -- later described life inside Krome. One said Krome was akin to a concentration camp; another said it was not such a bad place.

''Krome is a paradise compared to jails I have seen in Venezuela,'' Colina told The Herald. ``The issue is whether it's the right place to hold people like me who haven't done anything wrong in the United States. We came seeking asylum, and now we are in a detention center, like prisoners.''

TWO VENEZUELANS

Colina has been at Krome since Dec. 19, 2003, when he and another former Venezuelan national guard lieutenant, Germán Rodolfo Varela, arrived at Miami International Airport seeking asylum. Colina and Varela were sought in Venezuela on charges of bombing the Spanish Embassy and Colombian Consulate in Caracas. They deny the charges.

Other detainees were harsher in their assessment of Krome, but they asked that their names and nationalities not be published because they feared retaliation from immigration authorities.

A European called Krome a ''black hole,'' and a man from an African country, in a long letter to The Herald, called it a ''depression center'' where detainees receive inadequate medical care and are treated rudely.

''This place runs like a concentration camp, there is little or no respect for detainees,'' he wrote. ``They are treated like human cargo.''

Officials rejected the allegations, saying detainees have due-process rights and adequate medical care.

''With our partners, the United States Public Health Service, . . . Krome provides a safe, secure and humane environment,'' Rozos said.

Colina said that while some guards are rude, others are professional and polite.

Guards wake up detainees at 5:30 a.m., generally by rattling bunk beds with a metal object or by shouting, ''Breakfast! Breakfast!'' or ''Get up, Get up!'' several detainees said.

Detainees then have 30 minutes to line up for a 20-minute meal starting at 6 a.m. at the cafeteria, whose walls feature colorful murals painted by detainees over the years. Breakfast generally consists of cereal or sausage, eggs or pancakes.

Then it's back to the dormitories, where detainees can go back to sleep, watch television, take a shower or read a book -- until lunchtime.

Each time detainees return from a meal, Colina said, they are patted down by guards.

Lunch, another 20-minute affair, consists largely of rice, beans and fish or meat -- along with a salad bar.

After lunch, detainees can play sports outdoors for an hour -- under the watchful eye of guards.

Then it's back to the dormitories for more sleeping, reading or TV.

Detainees can also make calls from public phones in dormitories. They can either call collect or use prepaid cards. They can also request access to a law library.

Dinner is yet another 20-minute event with a menu similar to lunch.

It's back to the dormitories after dinner for more reading, TV, sleeping or phone calls.

There are no educational programs because Krome is considered a detention center where detainees await asylum or deportation -- not a long-term correctional facility.

LIGHTS OUT

Guards turn out most lights at Colina's dormitory at 11 p.m. on weekdays and an hour later on weekends.

The European detainee said that in his dormitory, three or four bright fluorescent lights stay on all night -- making it difficult to sleep.

If a detainee feels sick, he fills out a slip asking to see a doctor and deposits it in a box marked ''sick call'' for treatment the next day.

In an emergency, Colina said, clinic personnel will respond at any time.

Medical care at Krome has emerged as an issue after the recent death of the Rev. Joseph Dantica, an 81-year-old Haitian detained at the site after asking for asylum at Miami International Airport in October. Dantica was taken to the Krome clinic and then to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died.

Immigration officials said that Dantica died of pancreatitis and that an autopsy by the Miami-Dade County medical examiner's office determined that it was a preexisting and fatal condition.

MEDICAL CARE

The detainee who wrote the letter to The Herald said that he and four other detainees have received inadequate medical treatment because their special needs have not been met.

Krome officials said that patients' medical needs are addressed, and that if special care is required for chronic conditions, detainees are then scheduled for specialized attention. Officials said detainees also have grievance procedures to lodge complaints if they are not satisfied.

Lt. Cmdr. Dawn Anderson of the Public Health Service at Krome would not discuss specific cases during the Jan. 21 media tour.

ALLEGATIONS REJECTED

But she rejected as unfounded allegations that detainees don't receive proper care.

''When they come in, we assess their needs, and we provide the best medical care that they could possibly get,'' Anderson said. ``We take care of them within the best of our abilities.''